Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Monday, April 25, 2011

When I got home from work today there was a telenovela on TV and there was a woman who seemed sad and was writing in her diary. So, that led to this week being diary week. Stay tuned for various people's diary entries throughout the week!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

A quartet that used to have Martha Reeves in its ranks, The Fascinations never quite reached the heights they should have. They tried to find their place in the Detroit scene during the late 50's and early 60's but instead caught the ear of Chicago soul man Curtis Mayfield. Mayfield wrote multiple singles for them and even though multiple labels dropped them, he stuck with them and eventually signed them to his own label. They had a couple small hits stateside but never took off despite Mayfield's backing and well written singles. After not finding the stardom they had hoped for, The Fascinations broke up in 1968.

In 1971 their single 'Girls Are Out To Get You' was rereleased in the UK and broke the Top 40 charts, sparking a short reunion tour, but, this success was not enough to keep them together. There is only one album of their work and it didn't come out until 1997, it collects most of their singles and some unreleased masters.

Here is what would be their most successful single, from 1966 originally, the Curtis Mayfield written 'Girls Are Out To Get You':

And the bonus track for today is the b-side to their 'Girls' follow up single on the Mayfield label. Here is 'Such a Fool':

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Tonight's song is 'Clouds In My Sunshine' by Redbone. Supposedly based on the urging of Jimi Hendrix, in the late 60's Redbone formed and billed themselves as an all Native American rock outfit, though most of them were mixed ('red bone' is Cajun slang for someone who is mixed, but it is usually used in reference to females.) Formed in Los Angeles, some people consider them to have been very influential on the Los Angeles rock scene. Now they're probably best known for their hit 1974 'Come And Get Your Love.'

Here is 'Clouds In My Sunshine' off their 1973 album Wovoka:

Tonight's bonus track is one of their instrumental jam tracks off their 1970 self-titled debut album. Here is 'Suite Mode':

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Todays track is 'Faithful to the End' by D.J. Rogers. D.J. Rogers started by singing and playing piano for his local church before recording an album for Shelter records in 1973 which didn't garner much attention despite having some excellent tracks on it. His second album, from 1976, It's Good to be Alive contained the song 'Say You Love Me' which got a lot of radio play, but did not translate to many album sales. Rogers blamed this on the label and believed they were 'lazy' and they only had the label so they could use it as a 'tax write-off.' He would have small amounts of success with future singles which would chart on the R&B charts, but not much beyond that. In the 80's he returned to his roots and began releasing gospel albums (his records always had a gospel influence, but were never straight-up gospel records.)

Here is D.J. Rogers' 'Faithful to the End':

And as a bonus is a track that's a little funkier and off of his self-titled debut album. Here's 'Bail Out':

Monday, April 18, 2011

This weeks theme is going to be comics based off soul songs, just like the Soulful Sunday posts I make each week. The only differences will be that the comics will be longer and depending on the amount of time I have I might not be able to post any history of the artists, but I will definitely still post the songs for you all to listen to. Hope you enjoy!

Todays track is 'Mother Nature' by Albert Jones:

I'll also still try to include some bonus tracks. So, today is another Albert Jones track called 'Unity':

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Todays track is 'Crazy She Calls Me' as brought to you by 'Mr. Excitement' Jackie Wilson. Jackie Wilson has a long history, so I will provide a link his Wikipedia page at the end and instead give a short history of the song itself.

This song was originally known as 'Crazy He Calls Me' and was most famously recorded by Billie Holiday in 1949. It's been covered numerous times by men and women alike with the men simply changing all the 'he's' to 'she's.' The tune was written by Carl Sigman who had previously written 'Pennsylvania 6-5000' with Glen Miller and had also penned tracks with Duke Ellington. While the lyrics were handled by Bob Russell who would go on to write 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother' with Bobby Scott for The Hollies. The song was later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.

Here is Jackie Wilson's take on 'Crazy He Calls Me':

And, as a bonus, and for good measure, here is Billie Holiday's version:

And here is a link to the history of Jackie Wilson, who is credited as being one of the main bridges in helping R&B transition into Soul.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Last day of Indy Comic Week! Thanks to everyone that stopped by! Stay tuned more new themes and new comics!

And for anyone that is in Portland and going to Stumptown Comics Festival this weekend AND would like a copy of my Eat More Bikes 48 page comic (which collects a bunch of the earlier comics from this blog) you can swing by table E-30 where Rabid Rabbit will have some copies of it along with a slew of other fine comics!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

'Hello' to everyone that is visiting the site! And a BIG thanks to everyone that has been posting and tweeting about my comic from yesterday and some of my other work! You all know how to make a guy feel good.

I update with a new comic every day, so almost any time you come back for a visit there will be something new to look at!

Monday, April 11, 2011

I've got to say that I actually really enjoyed making this, as I had no idea what the final image was going to be. And even though I can't reveal the secret I used, if you want to create your own million dollar idea from the sheet, you can use this random number generator:

The generator is off to the right and you should set the values for 1-8 and write down the first 4 number it gives you. Then you can look on the sheet and see what your big idea is going to be. (Hopefully it doesn't come up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, because there might be a lawsuit to follow...) If anyone ends up doing this and drawing something, send it my way, I would love to see them and if I get any I'll post them up on the blog on Saturday! Whoa.

You can e-mail any images (no more than 600dpi across is really the only restriction) to me at:

nathan@eatmorebikes.com

Hope to see a few awesome teams!

Oh, and because of MOCCA taking place last weekend the theme is indy comics week.

Also, if you are in New York we can celebrate the fact that a couple of my buddies and I will be sharing a table at MOCCA Fest this year. We'll be at table C-19. The gentlemen I will be sharing with are past blog collaborators Brendan Leach (iknowashortcut.com) and Will Varner (willvarner.com) It should be a pretty sweet looking table.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

A one Billy Stewart provides the song for today. Billy Stewart, born in 1937, started out singing in a group with his brothers at a very young age. He eventually joined a Washington, D.C. vocal group led by Don Convay called The Rainbows. Though, it wasn't until 1956, when Bo Diddly saw him playing piano at a club, that Billy Stewart began to garner some recognition. Diddly signed Stewart to Chess Records and played guitar on his first single, 'Billy's Blues.' Stewart recorded a few singles with O'Keh Records with Marvin Gaye's Marquees backing him up, but ended up back with Chess shortly thereafter. He had a string of hit singles in the 60's while on Chess before recording a few that failed to chart. Unfortunately, in early 1970, Stewart, along with three band mates, were killed when the car Stewart was driving ended up in a river.

Today's track served as the B-Side to his last single for Chess in 1969. Here is Billy Stewart's 'We'll Always be Together':

And as the bonus for today here is his version of Gershwin's 'Summertime.' More than likely like you've never heard it before: